It's not Arne Slot's fault. He still has to go.

He's not the manager Liverpool need right now

Hi, I should start by apologising for a late newsletter. I’ve been pretty sick recently and that’s largely kept me out of action, otherwise this would’ve been published on Monday. I’m hoping I can start getting back on track from here onwards. Thanks for understanding.

Arne Slot made what was supposed to be a very hard job look easy last season.

Liverpool were probably expected to dip a little bit after Jürgen Klopp left. He had become such a huge figure. Upon winning the League Managers Association Manager of the Year award in 2020, Klopp was told in the presentation that his “personality runs right throughout the whole club” by the man they named the trophy after, Sir Alex Ferguson.

There’s clearly a cautionary tale here. But Liverpool successfully avoided a David Moyes-style mistake when Arne Slot won the Premier League title in his first season. That does develop a level of trust and buys him some time internally. It’s very hard to know what a club is actually thinking, as they almost always want to create an image of stability to the outside, which is why it’s hard to parse recent reports that Slot is to stay next season.

Those at the top, namely Fenway Sports Group and their CEO of Football Michael Edwards, “believe there is mitigation for performances”, according to Sam Wallace and Mike McGrath in the Telegraph. While I don’t know the actual internal views of Edwards et al, I think it’s pretty likely someone important at Liverpool did say this to the journalists. “The death of Diogo Jota [is] principle among them, given its effect on his team-mates at the start of the season […] while Slot is acknowledged to have made errors, the feeling is that he deserves four transfer windows before a judgment is made.

“Slot has a contract until the end of next season, and the club are of a mind to persevere into the last season of that deal before making any decision on a renewal or otherwise.”

Again, I don’t know if this is what Edwards actually thinks, but I do think it’s pretty likely this is the genuine line being given. I don’t exactly think much of the newspaper, but I don’t think the Telegraph are making this up. But for Liverpool’s sake, you’d hope they’re lying to the journalists, because this is the exact wrong way to think about the problem at hand. Let’s break down why.